April 2, 1942

Thursday, 92nd Days - 273 Days to Follow

Written by Margie Arbuthnot, Niwot, CO

A south wind today and not very warm.

Aunt Ione and I spent over an hour curling her hair.

We went to club this afternoon at Mrs. Bakers.

Had a very nice meeting.

Dad went to Niwot this P.M.

Chanaldene Burke reported quite sick.

Fire truck out to Mr. Swerengin's this P.M.

The Batchelder's Neighbor's Club meeting as reported by Helen Anderson.

Hostess:  Elsie Baker

Roll call:  My favorite recipe 

Discussion:  Sunday night supper

Oh how I wish I could know what the ladies said that their favorite recipe was as their names were called.

Taste of Home has 43 vintage recipes from the 1940's that are worth trying today.

January 16, 1942 Diary

Friday, 16th Day - 349 Days to Follow

Diary of Margie Arbuthnot

10 degrees above at 7:15 A.M.

Home all of today, cleaned up the house.

Baked cookies and a pumpkin pie.

Dad to Niwot this P.M. got a hair cut and some feed.

Don and Florence to Longmont to a Duck dinner.

Carol Jane and Darold here.

35 degrees above at 8 o'clock P.M.

Helen Hass here - gave another $1.00 for the Red Cross.

Wind in the west tonight.

Grandma's Pumpkin Pie

2 cups mashed pumpkin (or do what I do and use one 15oz can pumpkin)

2 large eggs

¾ cup sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 ¼ cups of warm milk (not too hot, but must be warm)

1 tablespoon flour

unbaked large pie shell (I use a 9-inch pie pan)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix together pumpkin, eggs, sugar.

Stir together spices, salt, and flour.

Mix together dry ingredients into the pumpkin/egg mixture.

Slowly stir in warm milk.

Pour into the unbaked pie shell.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes more.

(or until a knife inserted comes out clean)

Throughly cool and enjoy.

Fred and Margie Arbuthnot had so little, yet they found the funds to donate to the Red Cross.

Here is your opportunity to donate too.  Every $1.00 helps others in need.

Filbert Ice Cream

It's cold outside!  Yep, it's time to make ice cream! "What?" you say, "But it's Winter!"

Yes it is winter, and when the icicles were big and dripping from the roof of the house, that's when our family would make ice cream.  Just as mom's grandmother had done with her, mom would send us out with a broom to break down the big icicles.  We'd smash them up and gather a bucket full to bring into the basement where the old ice cream maker sat.  The crushed icicles were used to pack around the canister of cream that was in the center of the wooden bucket.  Rock Salt was layered in with the ice and we knew that after a lot of cranking (churning the cream), we'd all be enjoying something wonderful.

Here is an old recipe that was a favorite!

Filbert Ice Cream (1880)

You'll need one quart of good, thick cream and one pound of nuts.
Make a sugar syrup out of 20 ounces of sugar and 10 ounces of water.
[Heat the sugar and water together just until the sugar has dissolved.  Let cool while you do the next step.]

Break the nuts and roast over a low hot fire. Sprinkle some cream on them and pound them. Mix the cream, nuts, two beaten eggs, and syrup over a medium heat, stirring until you've got a custard. Strain and cool. Freeze [churn in an ice cream maker until frozen].  Pack the frozen cream in a mold and pack the mold in ice until ready to serve.

A Hand-Crank Ice Cream Churning Machine

Pickled Watermelon

Every Christmas it was a joy to go down into the cellar and get the jars of Watermelon Pickles that my Mom had canned in the summertime.  These little red and green jewels meant that Christmas was here and our family would be together with our cousins.  While this is a very old recipe, made with the oil of cloves and cinnamon that were purchased at the pharmacy, not the grocery store, I recommend giving this recipe a try today.  Especially if you are an experienced canner, you will be rewarded.

Watermelon Pickles

7 lbs Watermelon Rind 

3 ½ lbs Sugar

1 pint [Cider] Vinegar

½ teaspoon Oil of Cloves

½ teaspoon Oil of Cinnamon

Cut the green skin off the rind; leave some pink fruit (no more than a ½ inch) on the rind.  Cut rind into one-inch cubes.  Cover with hot water and par boil until rind can be pierced with a fork, but be careful not to let it get too soft.  Drain water off rind.

This should be about 7 lbs of fruit.

Bring sugar, vinegar, and oils to boil and pour over rind.  Let stand in kettle over night.  In the morning, drain off syrup, reheat [syrup] and pour back.  Sit over night.  The third morning, heat to hot both the rind and syrup.  Seal in jars.

Makes 8 pints.

Cornish Pasties - Old and New

A very popular recipe in the mining communities, where many miners had come from Cornwall England to mine, were Pasties.  (Pronounced PASS-ti)  Here is an original version that I would not recommend making, and the newer adjusted version that makes this much better tasting.  Thank you to the Trevarton Family, also Pioneer Natives of Boulder County, for sharing this with me.

Cornish Pasties - the OLD way.

For the dough, mix
2 cups sifted flour
1 ½ cups finely chopped suet
½ cup lard
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup water

Filling, mix together
chopped up round steak
ruttabega or tunip
red potato
onion 
1 ½ Tablespoon ground suet
salt and pepper

Roll the dough out into circles and fill with the meat filling.  Seal pastry with water, vent the dough.  Bake in a moderate oven until done.

Remember, I don't recommend eating any of the recipes that I label as old.  Please refer to the subject of Recipe - New for the ones that we eat in our home, like the one below...

Cornish Pasties - the New way

For the dough

Sift 3 cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of salt,

cut in 1 cup of shortening,

sprinkle with ½ cup of cold water and mix until it just holds together.

Wrap and let rest in the refrigerator like you do with a pie dough.

For the filling

Mix 2 ¼ cups of cooked, chopped round steak,

1 ½ cups of cooked, diced, red potato, 

¾ cup of chopped onion

1 ½ tablespoon soft butter

salt and pepper

Roll the dough out and cut into 6 inch squares.  Place some of the meat filling onto the dough.  Dampen the dough edges with water and fold over the dough, pinching it to seal.

Place Pasties on a cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated oven at 365 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.

Enjoy Pasties warm, after they have cooled from the oven.  Or eat them like a miner, cold and with a bit of brown grainy mustard.